Off the pitch
Football fever among Portuguese women
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| Portuguese supporters celebrate, 30 June 2004 near the Alvalade stadium in Lisbon, at the end of the Euro 2004 semi final football match between Portugal and The Netherlands at the European Nations championship in Portugal. Portugal won the match 2 to 1 and will play the final game of the competition. AFP PHOTO MLADEN ANTONOV |
Portuguese women have been swept up in the football fever which is sweeping the nation before Sunday's final, inspired by a team which is on the brink of a first major title.
Thousands of women, many wearing the red and green colours of the national flag, have screamed, cried and prayed like any ardent football fan.
The number of women watching matches is up 42 percent from Euro 2000 while
women made up nearly half, or 45 percent, of fans who watched the three Portugal matches.
"I was swept up by the euphoria surrounding the team. My husband and my kids got me into football," said one woman.
Bonus for Greek players under negotiation
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| Greek players and staff members celebtrate their victory 01 July 2004 at Dragao stadium in Porto during the Euro 2004 semi final football match between Greece and Czech Republic at the European Nations Championship in Portugal. AFP PHOTO Hrvoje POLAN |
Greek football officials in Portugal are still negotiating with the players about the final size of the bonus after their surprising qualification for the Euro 2004 final.
"The bonus was under negotiation before the Euro started, and will maybe remain so even after the final," said a Federation spokesman.
The Greek government, which has pledged a separate 1-million-euro bonus, also doesn't rule out an increase.
Aegean Airlines, Greece's biggest private airline, offered the squad unlimited business class tickets to every destination until the 2006 World Cup.
Greek PM to attend final amid frenzy
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| Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis gives a press conference near the Swiss resort of Burgenstock, where the Cyprus reunification conference was held, 31 March 2004. AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK |
Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis will lead a pack of around 6,000 Greek fans travelling to Portugal to support the team in Sunday's final against the hosts.
Karamanlis along with a fleet of up to 60 planes will be chartered to carry the fans to Lisbon. They will join as many as 10,000 Greek supporters already in Portugal.
Organisers for the Olympic Games in Athens in August added the football team's success boosted their own confidence.
"The players and the coach served as the best ambassadors for the cause of the Olympics," said chief organiser Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki.
Schroeder rules himself out
With Germany gripped by the debate over who should succeed Rudi Voller as the national team's coach, one man has ruled himself out of the race.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder jokingly told reporters in the lower house of parliament on Friday, "I have to tell you that I have not applied for the job of German coach."
The favourite for the post, former Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, said on Thursday he was not interested, while Greece's German coach Otto Rehhagel remains in the frame.
Czechs mourn defeat
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| Members of the Czech team look dejected, 01 July 2004 at Dragao stadium in Porto after losing the Euro 2004 semi-final football match between Greece and the Czech Republic at the European Nations championship in Portugal. Greece won 1-0. |
The Czech Republic's heartbreaking semi-final defeat by Greece was not one for the faint of heart declared the Czech press on Friday.
"It was a match capable of inducing a heart attack," opined 'Dnes' "It was a rough battle, the toughest one the Czechs had during the tournament.
"It is a tragedy for this team. But we pay homage to the opponent," it added.
The daily 'Sport' struck an almost poetic note.
"The gold medal was in our hands. But Czech euphoria was silenced on Thursday just before midnight by sadness,".
"Soon, the sadness will dissipate and we will come to appreciate our bronze medal."
Greek press salute Dellas
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| Greek defender Traianos Dellas celebrates his winning goal next to his teammate forward Angelos Charisteas (L), 01 July 2004 at Dragao stadium in Porto during the Euro 2004 semi final football match between Greece and Czech Republic at the European Championship in Portugual. AFP PHOTO ARIS MESSINIS |
'Hail our Colossus of Rhodes' was one headline that would have greeted Traianos Dellas, Greece's goalscoring hero from the stunning 1-0 semi-final defeat of the Czech Republic.
The back page of 'Ethnos' confirmed that Dellas' first goal for his country had earned him the right to be named after one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
"The Colossus of Rhodes (the Greek island where he was born) who drove the Greeks to Paradise!". adding a quote the player that 'God had answered his prayers'.
"The silver goal sent the whole world delirious," screamed the 'Eleftheros Typos'.
Malaysia arrest four Singaporean bookies
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| Greece's German head coach Otto Rehhagel celebrates, 01 july 2004 at the Dragao stadium in Porto, at the end of the Euro 2004 semi final match between Greece and Czech at the European Nations championship in Portugal. Greece won the match 1 to 0 after the extra time. AFP PHOTO ADRIAN DENNIS |
Malaysian police have arrested four Singaporeans in two raids for illegally collecting bets during Euro 2004, a senior police official said Friday.
The four, belonging to two separate betting rings, were collecting bets on the Greece-Czech Republic game amounting to 600,000 ringgit (157,895 US dollars) when they were arrested in southern Johor state by police.
Police also seized computer equipment, cellphones, television sets, telephones and some cash, he said. "We are going all-out against illegal gambling and we will continue with our crackdown," said the police official.
Greeks bring Melbourne to a standstill
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| Greek supporters celebtate, 01 July 2004 after watching their team win the European Nations championship semi-final football match between Greece and the Czech Republic at the Do Dragao stadium in Porto. Greece won 1-0. AFP PHOTO ADRIAN DENNIS |
Thousands of flag-waving Greek football fans brough central Melbourne to a standstill early Friday as they celebrated their country's semi-final victory over the Czech republic.
Boasting the largest Greek population of any city in the world outside Athens and Salonika, the community went berserk after the 1-0 win.
A noisy, but good natured, crowd of about 5,000 packed into Melbourne's Greek precinct to urge the team on, many brandishing flares and blue and white face paint.
"I must admit I didn't know if we could do it but when we got the goal the whole place went up," one fan.
Portuguese consult psychologist
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| Portugal's coach Luiz Felipe Scolari (2nd L) stands with members of his team for the national anthem, 30 June 2004 at the Alvalade stadium in Lisbon prior to the start of the Euro 2004 semi-final match between Portugal and The Netherlands at the European Nations championship in Portugal. AFP PHOTO Franck FIFE |
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari is seeking extra inspiration from Brazilian psychologist Regina Brandao as the team close in on their first ever major trophy.
"Since the Euro started we have spoken five or six times. Normally he calls me up the day before a match and we spend hours talking," a daily paper quoted Brandao as saying.
She added that Scolari was convinced her specialist psychological aid had helped the Brazilians in 2002 and that he wanted the effect to rub off on Portugal.
Italian foreign quota faces EU ban
Italian Olympic committee president Gianni Petrucci's proposal to limit foreign players with Serie A clubs from 2006-2007 faces a European Union ban.
"Professionnal sport is subject to laws governing the free movement of workers within the EU and to the principle of non-discrimination of foreigners," an EU spokesman said Friday.
She said the Bosman decision and later court rulings upheld the right of footballers to play abroad.
Petrucci wants half the squad of 16 club players -- 11 in the starting lineup and 5 substitutes -- to be Italian.
Greek Cypriots celebrate wildly
It was party time late Thursday as Greek Cypriots took to the streets of the capital Nicosia to celebrate Greece's passage to the Euro 2004 final with a 1-0 victory over the Czech Republic via the silver goal rule.
"Nobody is going to sleep tonight, we are afraid we might wake up and find it's a dream," one Cypriot. "This makes us proud to be Greek. It's a dream come true."
The scenes of jubilation have rarely been witnessed on the island, especially for a sporting event.